Once in a Blue Moon
by LadyKnightOfHollyrose
Summary: As a teacher in the Academy, Iruka had picked up the indispensable skill of lip-reading: he observed the exchange between the heirs of two clans with growing interest. OneShot.


_**Once in a Blue Moon**_

_**Disclaimer:**_I don't own any of the characters from Naruto

_**Summary: **_As a teacher in the Academy, Iruka had picked up the indispensable skill of lip-reading: he observed the exchange between the heirs of two clans with growing interest. OneShot.

As Shino strode to his seat, nondescript as ever, he was not surprised in the slightest as the sounds of varied shrieks and squeals attacked his ears from behind.  
Sitting down, he focused his chakra in an attempt to calm his Kikai bugs (restless because of the upsetting vibrations since entering the room), though this too was disrupted as a high pitched voice broke his concentration.  
"Squash it, squash it!"  
If the shrillness of the voice wasn't enough to send a shiver down the stoic Aburame's spine, then the words uttered certainly were.

Glasses flashed as his head snapped around, his eyes zoning in on the scene. A small crowd was beginning to gather around the desks on the top right hand corner of the classroom as academy students clustered around what was known to be Haruno Sakura's table.

There was a shrill cry of "Get that thing away from me!" before Shino rose resolutely from his seat to investigate.  
His blood ran cold at the sight beyond the sea of heads; a small spider, barely an inch in terms of size (including the length of its legs) was perched on the desk between two terrified (and frankly terrifying) kunoichi. Opposite them stood Naruto, arms raised, fingers grasping a book, evidently waiting for the right moment to drop it and subsequently flatter the poor creature below it.  
Had he not been so concerned about the spider's well being, he may even have taken a moment to warn the blond that killing a spider would not catch the Haruno girl's attention. Ok, he probably would not have, but he did not usually point out the obvious.

Behind the high collar of his coat, Shino's lips quirked down in a barely perceptible frown; how could kunoichi be expected to carry out high level missions if they were rendered useless by arachnophobia when the spider in question was so much smaller than they themselves were?

The situation seemed to escalate as Naruto's eyes narrowed in concentration as he followed the tiny spider's movements with his eyes. One finger uncurled from the book and Shino's heart all but stopped. He had to intervene!

"W-w-wait!"  
All eyes turned to the source of the noise, the spider forgotten for a moment.  
Shino's brows almost shot up when he recognised Hyuuga Hinata, easily the shyest (and probably the kindest) member of their year group. The analytical side of his mind stepped back from the spider-situation for a moment, and he noted how intriguing it was to find the girl intentionally thrusting herself into the spotlight that she always seemed to avoid.  
Indeed, her usually pale complexion slowly coloured as the eyes of the whole class trained on her as she made her way though the crowd. She didn't need to push or shove her way to the desk (though it was practically common knowledge that she would never do such a thing regardless), as the cluster parted, allowing her to pass.  
She gulped audibly as she came under the scrutiny of two pairs of eyes – one pair electric blue and one sea green.  
Hinata turned to address Sakura, who observed her classmate with curiosity and slight confusion.  
"Um… Sakura-san, w-would you mind the sp-spider so much if it wasn't… um… here?"  
Sakura's brow furrowed slightly in thought as she tried to make sense of the question, and why _Hinata_ was asking her this.

"I wouldn't care if it was nowhere near _me_, I guess…"

The petite girl approached the other side of the desk, and Shino began to understand her plan.  
She took a book out from under her arm and aligned it with the edge of the table as her small hand hovered behind the spider tentatively.  
A number of the kunoichi in the surrounding crowd gasped as she gently guided the spider to the book, never once actually coming in contact with the creature itself.

The mass of students - which had melded together so that they could stare at those in the middle – separated hastily to let Hinata through.  
'Amazing how such a tiny creature could instil such fear in (almost) grown human beings,' was the thought that struck Shino as Hinata ambled towards the door. More newly arrived students scrambled out of her way as they caught a glimpse of the spider scuttling across the book.

Hinata struggled with the door for a short while. Nobody moved or even attempted to offer the girl assistance and eventually she used her elbow to push down the door handle and her shoulder to nudge the door wide enough to edge through the room.

A collective sigh sounded around the room as the door swung shut behind her – and more importantly the spider. Sakura turned her attention back to Ino beside her and they began to bicker again. Naruto eyed what had been Hinata's retreating form for a moment, as though puzzling over something, before jumping to Sakura's (unwanted) defence.

Shino shook his head as he returned to his seat, still deep in thought regardless of the steadily escalating commotion around him.  
Indeed, the whole spectacle that morning had truly been intriguing…

x X x

Umino Iruka strolled through the corridor, going through a mental checklist of the objectives he needed to cover in his next lesson, as he often did, when he was stopped by the sound of a soft voice.

"I-I'm sorry Spider-san; I hope they didn't a-actually hurt you. Y-you should be safe now though…"

Iruka watched with mild amusement as his timid student let the said spider go through the window, holding the book that it had been on up to rest level with the ledge, reaching it only by standing on the tips of her toes.

"And what exactly did you save Spider-san from, Hinata-san?"  
The small girl jumped slightly and was only saved from stumbling by Iruka himself, who gently steadied her.  
Sparing her of the need to reply, he assured her, "It's fine. I have a fair idea about what the problem probably was." Steering her back towards the classroom he could already hear the clamour that undoubtedly came from _his_ class (the voice of a certain student that he was particularly fond of was clearly identifiable, even a corridor away).  
Reaching the correct door after a quiet walk, Iruka opened the door (Naruto had attempted the board rubber prank a couple of days ago, so he hadn't any reason to take precautionary measures upon entering) and held it open for the Hyuuga heiress, who shuffled inside and murmured a quiet "Thank you".

Instead of taking the direct route to his desk, Iruka paused a moment and Hinata turned to eye him curiously.  
He leaned down so that she would be able to hear him over all of the noise and said, "I'm sure that Spider-san will be fine now, Hinata-san."  
She seemed to relax slightly after hearing the promise. Giving him a respect filled bow, she trotted back up to the benches to find her designated seat.

Taking a seat himself and setting his paperwork down on his desk, Iruka noted that Hinata was stopped by a fellow classmate (arguably as much of an introvert as she) on her way back.  
As a teacher in the Academy, Iruka had picked up the indispensable skill of lip-reading: he observed the exchange between the heirs of two clans with growing interest.

"Ah, Hinata-san?" The kunoichi-in-training turned slowly to regard the other, apparently wondering whether she had misheard and that she _hadn't_actually been called. It was a little hard to tell, but it seemed as though Aburame Shino was giving her his undivided attention. She gave a tentative nod as a prompt for him to continue.  
"The way that you defended and rescued a creature from adversaries who were more powerful that itself was admirable. For that you have my respect."  
Shino's glasses flashed.  
As far as he could remember, this was the most that Iruka had heard the quiet boy say to his fellow classmates at one time – and if the wide-eyes look of astonishment was any indication, then the same was most likely true for her too.  
Then – as Iruka had guessed – the girl's face flushed to turn a ripe shade of pink.  
"Th-thank you, Shino-san!" She gave him a small bow, but was then startled into a jump as Iruka finally bellowed for his class to shut up and sit in their places (also taking the opportunity to threaten them with the consequences of missing homework).

The lesson was fairly uneventful - barring the occasionally outburst from Naruto, having to scold Chouji for eating and throwing chalk at Shikamaru in an attempt to rouse the boy – all in a day's work, really. And in true Friday-afternoon-fashion as soon as class was dismissed there was a sudden surge as everyone pushed and shoved in an effort to escape school for the weekend.

Iruka was gathering his own belongings (ready to go to the staffroom for a coffee before he started marking homework there) when he realised that actually, he wasn't alone. His surprise was only betrayed by a blink as he watched Aburame Shino take measured steps towards him.

"Was there something you wanted to discuss, Shino-san?"  
"Would I be correct in understanding that after graduation, genin are divided into three man cells which consist of two boys and a kunoichi?"  
Iruka nodded, impressed. He always found it odd that even children from shinobi families assumed that hey would work alone, even after being introduced to the teams of their relatives – he'd often heard complaints of 'having to tam up' when the initial squads were assembled.  
"Then may I request that our class graduates, the kunoichi assigned to my cell is Hyuuga Hinata-san?"

Iruka studied him for a moment before saying slowly, "I think I can see where this is going… Hinata-san will respect your kikaichi jutsu and fight alongside it while some of the other kunoichi would be distracted by the technique." His voice lowered slightly as he continued to ponder the idea, almost as though he was just thinking to himself, "…and with your abilities combined, the squad would be specifically geared for tracking… This could work very well. Shino-san, I'll have a word with the other teachers on the matter, but you needn't worry about graduation yet,"

Shino nodded and thanked the man before turning on his heel and briskly excusing himself.

The more Iruka contemplated on the idea, the more Shino's proposal seemed to make sense; he was really rather impressed by Shino's foresight… Despite the fact that this class still had a couple of years before graduation, he found himself trying to come up with a third member to the team over his mug of coffee.

x X x

As Shino stepped out of the Academy and began his journey home, he couldn't help but think of one reason for his request that Iruka-Sensei had neglected to mention: that Hinata was _nice _(and every time since, even when Hinata chose to be assertive – which only ever occurred once in a blue moon – Shino found himself confirming that initial assessment).

-Hollyrose-

**_A/N:_**So I've finally managed to write something that's not AU (if you don't count drabbles) in the Naruto Fandom! This ShinoHina oneshot was written as my entry for this month for "DateMe" (who have a profile here, and on DeviantArt - go check all the entries out!). It's also my first time writing Iruka and Shino...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this :)


End file.
